Disclaimer: Still don't own.
:}
Lunchtime came, and the gang headed out to eat. Jade, for her part, made her way to the grub truck, got her salad, then headed in to find a place to eat where she wouldn't be considered a threat to anyone around her. The Black Box theater quickly became her refuge, at least until the next time someone needed it for a noon time rehearsal.
Jade pushed back the tears as the next wave of pain hit her. 'Cat misses me already? I… I need to get word to Beck, tell him to take care of her. Tell Vega to watch out for her. Maybe have one of them get word to her roommate, so someone will be looking out for her all the time. I mean, she's the most vulnerable. The others, except Robbie, they'll be just fine. That is, once they forget about me...' The waves of pain continued to splash against her inner walls as Jade forced herself to stop crying and put on a brave face. She'd made her choice, and had to live with it. 'At least grandpa is gonna be free to visit me, when he can. That is, once I finish the training part of this garbage.'
Her porcelain face morphed from hurt to angry as the next thoughts pushed through into her consciousness. 'And this is garbage. I mean, yea, I get it, I caused some damage, but I deliberately avoided hurting anyone, and trust me, I could have messed up a whole lotta people if I'd wished too. So, in a way, I'm being punished for holding back...' The rage brought a fresh idea, of escaping, tearing up the police station and all the people in her way. 'Only, grandpa is trying to retire, and he needs me to do this for him.' The thoughts were weak, barley a whisper against the raging storm of her anger. But they contained her love for the only family member who ever seemed to care about her, who gave her time, love, and occasionally a release from the torment of her families problems. In the end, that whisper of love and hope, backed by his expectations, shook her soul like thunder.
'Easy Jade, lets not do anything that'll put his deal in jeopardy.' She cautioned herself. 'No, lets do our best, and wait for things to go sideways, like they always seem to do for me. Like when I got here to Hollywood Arts, and managed to claw my way to the top of the heap. I was the number one mean girl, cause no one challenges the mean girl. But I was more then that. Multi-talented, actress, singer, pianist, writer, director, magician, and with luck, filmmaker. Hell, I more then earned that number one spot, with my closest competition being Cat, who's my best friend. Then along came Vega, and oh how I hated her for what she did. It took her nothing, with her friendly, easy going ways, to take over as best actress and singer. I have a better voice. Hell, Cat has a better voice then the both of us. Yet Tori is the number one singer, and the go to actress, and as for the rest of my talents, no one seems to care about any of that. Not unless miss oh so perfect with those incredible cheekbones decides to do it, and somehow succeeds. Like, when she wrote and directed a play, I was so sure she was gonna take over two more of my titles, and only then people would care about either of them. But then she failed...' Jade flashed a dark, envious smile. 'She failed, and I was still the BEST! And still, no one gave a flying fuck about those skills.' Jade gave a sigh, noticing finally that she'd just been pushing her salad around. With a heavier sigh, she forced herself to quickly eat about half of it before tossing the rest, then heading off to her next class.
As she made her way to class, she had to remind herself to tread softly. She wanted to stomp, be noticed, but she couldn't risk it. 'I wanna stomp so hard I can hear the floor reverberate. Problem is, right now, I'm keeping my head down. Waiting until I've earned a touch of forgiveness before I risk lifting my head up again. So, tread softly, and for now, hold in that part of me that needs to be seen. Soon enough, I'll be there, in the white hot spotlight. You'll see, Grandpa, you'll see. I just need to take my time, work for it, and let things happen...'
Jade didn't notice, much less care, about the eyes watching her through the blind of mister Alexanders office. She had other thoughts conflicting in her mind, and was holding onto her love and trust in her grandfather to carry her through what she knew would be the hard months ahead.
"So, whats this about?" Lane asked, not bothering to look back at his guest yet. "And do I need to cancel my next appointment? I mean, if this is important..." The counselor held his breath as he turned to meet the eyes of his guest, waiting to find out what the superhero wanted from him.
"Do you ever regret joining Project Redemption?" David asked.
"No, not really." Lane replied. "I mean, yea, Bullrush nearly ended me, but that was because, back then, we didn't have the restrains we needed in the project."
"Plus, you've been in with the Blue Generation Initiative for a while now." David said. "So I'm kinda sorry to do this to you, but we have a new recruit for Project Redemption, and she goes here."
"I'm kinda surprised you didn't pull her, send her to Juvenile hall to attend school there." Lane spat, a true disdain for something etched in his voice.
David smiled. 'I knew you had bad feelings about what that bull headed kid did to you...' He thought. "Anyways, this one is kinda dangerous, so if you don't want her here..." He let that thought fade. 'I can send her to juvie, and let things fall where they may.' The police officer barely felt the guilt at trying to break the deal they'd made with Pandion. He was blinded by how much danger the goth was now putting his children, and their friends, in.
"No, I don't want to shift the burden." Lane said, his voice tired. "I assume you're here to ask me to keep an eye on them?"
"Yep." David was surprised he didn't sound disappointed.
"Then I'll need as many details as you can provide, as soon as you can provide them." The counselor said.
"I'll have you added to our use group, assuming you still have your password." The police officer smiled. They'd been using bio-metrics for a while now, so no one was likely to be able to break in to any of their police accounts. "But what I can tell you is, the girls named Jade West, and she's..."
"Intimidating as hell." Lane cut in. "Sorry, but Jade? Really? I mean, sure she feels like she's the kind to just break the laws, except she's an A student, and she knows where the boundaries are. She doesn't put others in needless danger." Feeling like he was arguing, the man calmed down a touch and continued. "Yea, she's scary, with deep mental scarring, but none of her pranks have led to any injuries, no mater how complicated they are. Fact is, she's not dangerous."
"She's the Black Dahlia." David said. "That is, in case you weren't brought up to speed, she's the mystic who tried to free Pandion. Took on both me and Constable."
"I heard." Lane said. "Not sure how easy it is, but from whats I understand, she controlled an earth elemental while engaging in combat. According to Dante, not that easy."
"Girl has a lot of power, and from our best guesses, a hell of a lot of potential. We're looking around for a trainer to help out, given our lack of mystics willing to sign up for a police run initiative, counting Dante." David explained. "Hell, Dante even warned us, from what he could tell, that with her power, the wards we had on her might not have held against any real attempt to escape. So, given the situation, that left us with very few choices. I've agreed to take her on as my sidekick, just to get her into the program, cause project Redemption is our best shot at containing her.."
"Only, then you had a chance to really think about what kind of a danger she represents?" Lane asked. "Like, why'd you take the deal? And why was she trying to rescue Pandion?"
"That crown of his, lets him use the body of an ancient Greek hero, with superhuman abilities on par with mine. Only, it's not his body, so he can switch back and forth as needed. If he hadn't been trying to save his son's from their own mistakes, we'd have never caught him." David told the man.
"And how does Jade mix in all of this?" Mister Alexander asked, trying to clarify, since that kind of details often led the wrong way in these kinds of discussions.
"Jade's his granddaughter." David admitted. "His daughter, she didn't have the same draw into the family business, and in fact married a strict, humorless but generally honest man to get away from that family. Jade was the result of that union. And it was Jade, trying to save her grandfather, that fought Constable and myself. Would have defeated us both, too, if she'd been better trained in how to use her powers."
"Wait, that was the Black Dahlia, right? You're telling me that Jade's the Black Dahlia?" Lane whistled. "What are we coming to now." He shook his head. "Yea, I'm in. I'll keep an eye on her, and reach out to my contacts in the mystic community, see if I can find someone the police will trust to act as a mentor to her, help her along. The only thing I'm worried about now is the fact that the morons behind Project Redemption never set it up for anyone to succeed. They demand too much, too soon, and I'm pretty sure Jade will be just another statistic."
"So?" David asked.
"If she's really that powerful, do we want her driven further into a life of crime? Statistics show crueler punishments don't reduce the chances of a criminal returning to that kind of life. The countries with the lowest rates of recidivism all treat their prisoners far better then we do. That's why so many states and counties have programs, probation programs, designed to help those who have broken the law find their way back to the straight and narrow."
"You saying we should coddle her?" David accused.
"No, I'm just asking, what are our goals here?" The counselor said. "If we want her to be a hero, have that power on our side, then we need to proceed carefully. Hell, if we want her a neutral, we proceed carefully, balancing the punitive with the constructive, so she doesn't become even more unbalanced. If, on the other had, you're so freaked out about how close she was to Tori, then maybe you aren't the one she should be working towards."
"I can keep my personal feelings separate from my job." The police man barked. "And it's my job to help reduce the number of super powered criminals out there. Jade's well on the way to being one. This, her enrollment with Project Redemption, it's her best chance to heading off that fate before things go to far, and she can't be pulled back from the edge."
"So, if things get rough for her, are you planning on killing her?" It was a cold question, designed to push a button.
David seethed. "Lets just hope it doesn't get there, cause with you working with her, you're in as much danger as the last time you worked with the project."
"Only, Jade kinda respects me." Mister Alexander said, showing a clam that had been absent just moments before. "Not sure she will, once she finds out I'm keeping an eye on her, but for now, she respects me. That's an edge I didn't have with Bullrush."
"Lets hope it's enough." David said, ready to walk out and slam the door.
"I'm hoping so." Lane said. "But, and I hesitate to say it, you're in a far better place to help her through this then I am. You get to make a lot of the rules she'll be living under for the next few years. So, lets not be too quick with the demerits, cause once those get to be too much, and making it through the program feels impossible, the kid may start to feel like there's no point, like it's hopeless. And we both know, when an animal feels cornered, that's when it lashes out. Treat her like an animal, corner her, we already know she'll react badly. No, there has to be the carrot at the end of the stick, a reward she wants at the end of the road, or you can just forget it. And yes, as you've already said, Jade's a hell of a lot more dangerous then anyone we've had in this program before. But her lack of training, given who her grandfather is, tells me that they were trying to keep her out of this world. So lets not lose sight of what we're trying to do here."
"Don't worry, I won't." David snapped. He was still mad, not really hearing what the other man was saying. Not yet. But the deed had been done, and now David had to think about the choices he was making.
As soon as the hero was gone, stomping his way out of the school, Lane took a moment to open a link with the websight for Project Redemption, asking for access. Not yet able to go too deep, he was still an adviser for the Blue Generation Initiative, so he had some access to the other projects. He asked the computer for current roster for Project Redemption. 'Only one name, huh? Not surprised, given that it was meant to fail...' He started planning on how he was going to help Jade when the world was out to get her.
Lane sent himself a note to get back to this, making sure that Jade was taken care of, then returned to his day. Then he sent word to both the security officers working at Hollywood Arts, letting them know the change in Jade's status. Finally, he sent himself a reminder to read the file on Jade as soon as he got access.
Jade, meanwhile, continued to avoid her friends. She knew she'd have a hard time, for the next few weeks, avoiding her friends while everyone got used to the new normal. Still, the mourning was slowly being processed through, leaving a distraught and lonely girl growing and more bitter at everything. Time, long enough, would turn even that hurt into new reasons for her to lash out. Still, Jade was stubborn, ready to fight her way through this challenge and come out on top. Time and isolation alone wouldn't break her, not initially. It just hurt.
Jade waited, at the end of the day, to be picked up and taken to her first probation meeting. 'I used to have a car, but dad took it away, cause apparently this isn't punishment enough. Besides, why make it easy for me to get to my court required probation meetings, or this project thingy I'm supposed to be attending? No, he wants me to know I did wrong, and this is his way. Like it helps.' Her bitter thoughts ate at her. Jade felt a lot of resentment at her parents, but let it go in favor of focusing on how she was going to get home once the meeting with her probation officer was over.
"Jade West?" A voice asked.
"Who wants to know?" Jade shot back. 'Easy there, Jade, maybe it'll be better if I'm kidnapped, raped, killed and then left in a gutter. That'll make everyone so much happier.' There was no humor in that dark thought, just a sense of helplessness that she'd been fighting all day.
"I'm Eric Walker, and I'm you're probation officers assistant." The man pulled out an ID card. "Here, cause I know you won't just take my word for it. Go ahead and call the number on the back. Or even look it up. I'll wait, just a few minutes. I want you to feel safe since I'm gonna be driving you to the meetings."
Jade glanced at his card, then decided she could probably take him if she had too. "Lets get this over with." She announced, gesturing for him to show her where his car was.
"Sure, this way." He led her to an unexciting, basic gray car. "This is the car Probation signed out to me for picking you up." He put his hand next to his mouth, like he was gonna tell her a secret. "Honestly, I was kinda expecting a van."
"Whatever." Jade said, getting in. 'Okay, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. So, why am I feeling like this is the only nice part of the whole fucking ordeal?'
As they started moving, Eric asked her a question. "So, what about you made them insist on me wearing body armor?" Jade just shrugged.
In the school, Sikowitz made his way to where the guidance councilor was closing out his day. "Excuse me, but you got a moment?"
"Sure, whats up?" Lane asked, not stopping his busy work of putting files away.
"I was kinda hoping to speak to you about Miss West." The acting teacher said.
"What about her?" Lane asked. 'God, what now? Have her grades already begun to slip? I knew this was going to happen, just not this quickly.' He turned to give the acting teacher his full attention.
"I couldn't help noticing that Jade wasn't herself today." Sikowitz asked. "When I asked about it, I found out she'd been arrested, and the probation they gave her will make it hard for her to maintain her friends. Hell, it may even make it hard for her to continue to thrive at this school. Now, I understand that there has to be consequences for bad decisions, but is this really whats best for her? For the school? For everyone?"
"Not sure what you want from me?" Lane said, watching the quirky teacher.
"Oh, right, sorry. Got distracted." Sikwoitz admitted. "I want to help with Jade's rehabilitation. I figure, with one friendly face about, life won't be so hard for her."
"Then contact Probation, let them know." Lane urged.
"I would, except given how powerful she was, I assumed she'd be put into one of those secret, metahuman training programs, like the Vega sisters." The balding teacher said, his voice calm and contained.
"I'm afraid I have no idea..." Lane started.
"Oh please, you think I have no idea about what's been going on here?" Sikowitz waved his hand. "A school where being a bit different is the norm would be the perfect place for those with abnormal abilities to blend in. Of course, Trina's tongue swelling up, that was way too convenient, even if it did open the way for her way talented sister to skip the usual auditioning procedures and get right in. Then again, Trina even getting a place on the showcase, our premier event of that one year, was suspicious. So, I figured it had to do with the police project, or projects, being run through this school. And, while I used to think Eikner was the link, he was way to easy to replace. No, given what I know about Helen, I believe it has to be someone who could interact with any student and no one would give it a second look, making you and me the best options. So, is it you, or me?"
"So, you think it's me?" Mister Alexander asked.
"Oh, good, it's not me." Sikowitz said. "Look, I'm not hopeless here. I have something to bring to the table. See, I used to be a sidekick, back when I was young and breaking into show business. I applied for a job with a professional magician, and he saw something in me he wanted to nurture. So I became Abra, Mister Cadabra's sidekick. Then, he hired some girl to be his on stage assistant. Didn't even bother to teach me any stage magic, just the real stuff. Still, those years taught me a lot about showmanship, presentation, and of course, magic. Not nearly as potent as Mister Cadabra, or even Jade, thought I believe she's a bit stronger then he ever was. Still, I know a lot of things she doesn't, and feel I could help her. So, you gonna call them and make arrangements for me to be her mystic mentor?"
Lane just stared at the quirky teacher, his mind reeling at the admission. Still, his own years of dealing with the metahuman world had left him with the ability to react to this kind of opportunity quickly. "Yea, I'll make the call, just as soon as you prove what you said is true..."
"Oh look, I've pulled a Rottweiler out of my pants. Whatever do you think it was doing there?" Sikowitz said, breaking up his words to sound overly acted, even as the large dog sauntered around the office. "Now, if you'll be so kind as to make the call, I can concentrate on making sure this is just an illusion, and not the real thing."
Lane's hand was already on the phone.
:}
Okay, I swear, I do get to Project Redemption, sooner or later. Lets hope we get there next chapter.
Thoughts on Eric? Jade's dilemma? Power brings dark temptations. But Jade has a lot of love for her grandfather. Lets just hope the project had a competent head, so she has a real chance.
Don't think to harshly of David. He's just trying to protect his family. Lane, that guy, not a fan of the way the project was run. One super strong kid tried to end you, and you start getting opinions.
Review.
And yes, it was the old Rottweiler in the pants trick.